1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope system that is capable of observing a minute specimen (sample) while magnifying various parts of the specimen, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a microscope system comprising an image capturing unit for capturing the observed image of the specimen, and a detection unit for detecting the driving status of various optical members for switching observation methods and the driving status of the stage for the specimen or the driving status of the objective lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, microscopes have been used for research and tests in various fields including the industrial field as well as the field of biology.
Observation methods used in microscope apparatuses include a method for observing slight fluorescence emitted from a specimen (hereinafter, the method may be referred to simply as “fluorescence observation”). The fluorescence observation generally utilizes a light source such as a mercury lamp or a xenon lamp. The light from the source are collected and applied to the specimen. The illumination light may have to be applied to the specimen intensely in some cases, since fluorescence emitted from some specimens is very weak. In such cases, however, the continued application of the intense illumination light to the specimen may result in a phenomenon called “discoloration”, in which the illuminated part of the specimen is damaged by the intense light and no longer emits the fluorescence.
Therefore, apparatuses configured to apply the illumination light only when required have been proposed to cope with the above problem. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-195940) proposes a fluorescence microscope configured to be synchronized with the exposure time of a camera for capturing the images of specimens, and to turn the illumination light off when the camera is not capturing images. Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-331889) proposes a fluorescence microscope configured to automatically measure the duration of time in which the illumination light has been applied, and to issue an alert to the user when the duration exceeds a predetermined amount of time. Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-66108) proposes a microscope that can be switched to an intermittent mode by use of a switch. During the intermittent mode, the intensity of the illumination applied to the specimen is intermittently-reduced, and the monitor can be updated by displaying, as a still image, an image signal of for the status immediately before the intensity becomes too low to show the specimen. Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-66109) proposes a microscope that detects the amount of change of the image signal, and when the amount of change is below a predetermined amount, the intensity of the illumination light applied to the specimen is reduced to a level at which the amount of change of the image signal can be detected, and the image signal of the status immediately before the reduction of the light intensity is output to the monitor as a still image.
Meanwhile, Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-195274) proposes a microscope system configured, to switch off the power of the illumination unit when no operation has been done with the microscope for a predetermined period, for the purpose of power saving. Patent Document 6 (Japanese Patent No. 3321956) proposes a microscope control apparatus configured to, when a driving instruction is given to the electric revolver holding the objective lens, limit the amount of the light entering the objective lens from the illumination light source, for the purpose of preventing excess brightness when switching the objective lenses.